Vatican Pope
Pope Leo XIV leaves after a Mass where he conferred the pallium on newly appointed metropolitan archbishops, in St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, Monday, June 29, 2026.
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A breakaway group of traditionalist Catholics has directly defied Pope Leo XIV by consecrating four bishops without his consent. The Society of St. Pius X is dismissing the resulting excommunications and schism by declaring it was a “sacred duty” to defend the Catholic faith. The group opposes the modernizing reforms of the Catholic Church. It went ahead with the consecrations at its seminary in Econe, Switzerland, despite a last-ditch appeal by Leo to call it off. The ceremony drew thousands of people who prefer the Latin Mass to the modern liturgies celebrated in most of the Catholic Church. The Vatican has said the ceremony is a schismatic act that incurs automatic excommunication.
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